Shanghai sex scandals and cell-phone cameras

In his latest article on the recent spate of sex scandals and mistress revolts in China, Michael Sheridan of the Sunday Times (UK) dishes out the latest political gossip in Shanghai and has us wondering who his sources are! He reveals:

Every Shanghai official above a certain rank has been required in recent weeks to watch tearful video confessions by 11 of their comrades at the centre of a £200m corruption inquiry, Communist party members say.

In the video confessions Chen’s accomplices cry on cue and apologise to the people, the party and the state, all “spontaneously” reciting an ancient saying: “One mistake and sorrow for a thousand years.”

Apart from giving some good background information on why the so-called “Shanghai faction” of the party — which was spearheaded by former mayor Chen Liangyu and “stood for unbridled globalisation and capitalism” — had to be brought down, Sheridan also tells the interesting story of a woman by the name of Lu Jiali, whose modelling agency provided girls to entertain city officials. “Like many Chinese,” the story goes, “Lu was fascinated by new technology. In her case this meant miniature video cameras.”:

Nobody seems to know why Lu risked making videos of the powerful men who succumbed to the charms of her employees… Connoisseurs of Chinese intrigue are likely to conclude that spies for their political rivals must have engineered the whole thing.